


Should Be in the Paperwork

by curiously_me



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: ccbingo, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-11-02 11:36:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiously_me/pseuds/curiously_me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for my Clint/Coulson bingo card for prompt <i>#13: sharing clothing</i><br/>Beta read by @fleurrochard</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should Be in the Paperwork

One of the things that Clint feels he should have been warned about when he agreed to becoming a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Avengers Initiative is the astonishing amount of clothing he loses on the job.

His favorite jeans went the way of the Dodo only a week after he joined up, thanks to (what he saw as) a minor conflict with Natasha. Really, he hadn't meant for it to come out like her hair made her look like a hooker, it was just... really red. On second thought, he should have just chewed on his shoes instead of saying anything.

The hoodie he'd had since attending the one school where the teachers actually seemed to give a shit died in a spectacular firefight against the toaster. That one? Not Clint's fault in the slightest. You put a man who's been on ice for 70 or so years into a fully furnished kitchen and watch the mayhem. It's not a pretty sight. When the toaster spontaneously combusted, it was all Clint could do to put out the flames, hoping the rest of the house didn't fall down around their ears. Steve had replaced the hoodie with one of his own. He's just a nice guy like that.

The socks, shoes, and baseball caps have such a high fatality rate that Clint's stopped counting ages ago and just heads down to the nearest Walmart or Target whenever he seems to be running low on essentials. And on the topic of essentials, Clint's been going commando for months! Seriously, after Tony's last attempt at integrating a com system into underwear went, well, south, most of the Avengers are wary of any type of undergarments. Except for Natasha, that is. For good reason, Tony's scared shit-less of her and there isn't a thing in the world you could give him to get him to prank her. Not one single thing.

Anyways, the point is that Clint Barton would have liked to know about this garment fatality S.H.I.E.L.D. has going on before he'd agreed to join a team full of crazies. He would have held out for a clothing budget or something of that sort.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Clint says, shuffling across the floor, hands held guiltily behind his back. He would never hear the end of it, if Tony saw the shirt he'd been (not) cuddling and about to put on. Tony, for all that he claims to have to spend his time running his company, has a scary amount of time to devote to fine-tuning the art of picking on his friends.

"Uh huh, sure." Tony says, moving forward like he's got some kind of evil plan to get at what's behind Clint's back. Clint wouldn’t put it past him to actually have a plan at the ready for situations like this.

Thankfully, Steve takes that moment to walk past the open door, glancing inside as he does. Steve raises an eyebrow at his teammates as he speaks.

"Hey, Tony, there you are. Did you forget about joining me for a run this morning? Pepper said she'd added it to your calendar so you wouldn't, but I know how your brain works." Steve says.

Clint watches, bemused, as Tony seems to shrink into himself a little before turning to follow Steve down the hall. Nearly everyone, except for Steve, knows about Tony's epic dislike for anything deemed exercise. They also know that he volunteers for such activities just for the opportunity to spend one on one time with one Steve Rogers. It's actually kind of cute.

"Don't think I've forgotten about this, Barton." Tony warns as he rounds the corner.

Clint holds his breath as he waits to hear both Steve and Tony's footsteps heading down the stairs and then lets it all out with a whoosh.

It's not his fault he gets attached to articles of clothing. Growing up, in the circus, everything you wore was a hand-me-down from some other kid and the few items you got brand new were like Christmas presents. And, while this particular shirt isn't brand new, it was a gift from someone Clint cares about rather a lot. He smiles a little, bringing the shirt back up to his nose, as if he can smell its owner even after it's been through the wash multiple times since he’d “appropriated” it.

Yeah, he remembers exactly what happened and he winces a little at the memory, it hadn’t been one of his better ideas. Without getting into too much detail, let's just say that it's a bad idea to sew Bruce's socks closed on April Fools. He really doesn't like that and the Hulk likes it even less, if a person went by how much damage he'd done to Clint's own wardrobe and room in retaliation.

Clint pulls the shirt over his head, barely managing not to sniff the collar again, before heading downstairs for breakfast. He can't wait to see what Coulson has to say about him wearing his handler's slightly too big shirt. It's going to be a great morning.


End file.
